October 2016

Tuesday, August 16, 2016

I’ve often heard we should develop a “personal relationship” with Jesus Christ. I have tried to understand this, and have grasped at this relationship, seeking to develop and embrace it.

But it doesn’t feel natural to me: He is too great, and demanding, and the word “cross” always shows up.

Still, I’ve come to my own way of getting to know him, and it a simple way: through the saints, who all have one thing in common: they all found their way to Jesus, often after much struggle. They all got it right.

Since that’s my goal too, I look to them. Some might call that “cheating.” I say it’s more efficient to walk in the footsteps of saints than to try to plow new paths which can lead me anywhere.

The saints are my “Catholic Hall of Fame.” They’ve marked the path with examples of unconditional love, humility, patience, joy, kindness and — so many times — unimaginable courage.

Many of these Hall-of-Famers are well-known, of course, but I’m always on the lookout for one of the hidden gems whose stories are not as familiar to us so I can make friends with them; settle down and hang out, so to speak.

Here is one saintly family that met the criteria for Hall of Fame membership. Meet Joe (Jozef) and Vicki (Wiktoria) Ulma.

My new friends, Joe and Vicki, lived in southern Poland in a town called Markowa. Joe was a librarian, a photographer, and a bee-keeper. He was active with the local Catholic Youth Organization. Vicki was 12 years younger than her husband and they had six kids: Stanislaw, age 8, Barbara, age 7, Vladyslaw, age 6, Franciszek, age 4, Antoni, age 3, and Maria, age 2.

Then along came the Nazis.

During the summer of 1942, the Nazi military police began deporting Jewish families from Markow to the death camps. Joe and Vicki, good Catholics who loved their faith and Jesus, knew what they had to do. Toward the end of summer, in the darkness of night, they sneaked their Jewish neighbors, the Szall family — a mom, dad, and four kids — into their home. In addition to the Szalls, there were two young sisters from the Goldman family. Hiding in their attic, these guests remained with the Ulmas for a year and a half.

Then a neighbor who had harbored some ill-will toward the Szall family discovered the secret and informed on the Ulmas.

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

This former Marco Rubio faith advisor is likely catching a tremendous amount of grief and ill-will for his courageous act:

Eric Teetsel had intended to stand outside Donald Trump’s meeting with evangelical leaders Tuesday and talk with attendees he knew about why he thought the gathering was a bad idea.

But when Teetsel, a 32-year-old evangelical political activist who was Sen. Marco Rubio’s faith adviser during the Florida Republican’s presidential campaign, arrived at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square, he felt compelled to do something more to speak out against Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president.

He walked to a Walgreens, looking for poster board, so he could create a handmade sign on the spot and hold it outside the meeting. But Walgreens didn’t have any.

“I wondered if that was a sign from God that I shouldn’t do this,” Teetsel told me, sitting at a table on the ninth floor of the cavernous hotel. “Then I walked to Staples and found some poster board.”

He used a red marker in his bag to write out a message for attendees, spectators and reporters gathered: “Torture is not pro-life. Racism is not pro-life. Misogyny is not pro-life. Murdering the children of terrorists is not pro-life.”

Teetsel included a Scripture verse, Proverbs 29:2, at the bottom, which says, “When the righteous thrive, the people rejoice; when the wicked rule, the people groan.”

He stood outside on Broadway, a former presidential campaign adviser holding a handwritten sign denouncing his own party’s presidential nominee amid the spectacle of Times Square.

Teetsel is not an impartial observer, politically speaking. He traveled to New York this week from his home in Kansas to participate in meetings with leaders of Better for America, a group organizing a campaign-in-waiting for an independent candidate who could give voters an alternative to both Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

But Teetsel did feel compelled to do more than just maintain a low-key presence in the lobby outside the meeting between Trump and several hundred evangelical leaders.

“Christians are called to live out the Gospel in every aspect of their lives, including politics. It matters. It’s important. But we have to be sure that we are representing the Gospel in truth,” he said. “I think we know enough about Donald Trump to know that a Christian response should be prayer for him, but also a prophetic witness about what is true.”

May the good Lord give Teetsel the perseverance and stick-to-it-iveness he's clearly going to need as he faces the fallout and wrath of the glassy-eyed Trumpetists.

Thursday, October 22, 2015

An American soldier was fatally wounded on Thursday as American and Kurdish commandos raided an Islamic State prison in northern Iraq after learning that the prisoners faced imminent mass execution, the Pentagon said. The commando became the first American soldier killed in action in Iraq since the withdrawal in 2011.

The raid, near the town of Hawija, freed 70 prisoners, including Kurds and more than 20 Iraqi security

AFP

forces, the Pentagon said in a statement. Five Islamic State fighters were detained and several killed, and American officials said important intelligence about the terrorist group was recovered.

Some details of the classified operation remained unclear. But as described by Iraqi officials in the area, the mission appeared to be a significant joint strike against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, at a time when Iraqi and American officials are trying to mount a wider counteroffensive against the militants.

Fears that the prisoners were in danger may have been reinforced by the militants’ actions in recent days. An Iraqi in the Hawija area, who asked not to be named because he feared retribution from the Islamic State, said this week that the militants had recently executed 11 young men who were the sons or relatives of police officers or other Iraqi forces. He said their bodies had been hanged on a nearby bridge.

American and Iraqi officials said the raid involved American helicopters, Kurdish and American Special Operations forces, and airstrikes. The commando who was killed was not identified pending notification of his family. Four Kurdish soldiers were wounded as well, officials said.

American officials said American helicopters flew the commandos to the site. Kurdish special forces were said to have been in the lead, but American commandos were also on the ground. American jets carried out airstrikes to cut the roads leading to the site.

“They cut off roads and raided the place successfully,” one of the Iraqi officials who confirmed the raid, Najmaldin Karim, the governor of the surrounding Kirkuk Province, said in a telephone interview. “They were able to take people with them.”

...

The slain soldier was the first American killed since military operations by the United States-led coalition against the Islamic State began in September 2014, but soldiers from other coalition nations have also been killed.

May God grant rest to the American hero slain and comfort to his loved ones.

Sunday, July 05, 2015

My priest has been a light for me personally since I first met him a number of years ago but he has particularly been a flame for me of late.

He has been no shrinking violet in the wake of the Obergfell SCOTUS decision, in fact, quite the opposite and I took a moment after Mass today to tell him so, something I think we should all be doing for our faithful and prophetic priests, particularly those who are boldly standing up for truth and who are encouraging us all to do the same.

Father Mike's homilies these last two weeks have extolled truth courageously and he hints that he has been taking some heat for it and I trust that he has as does anyone today who proclaims the Church's teachings. The lukewarm and the faithless seem to be particularly loud and passionate these days and are quick to call out those who stand with the Church against the zeitgeist.

I wish there were recordings of Father Mike's homilies, particularly these last two but sadly, there isn't. So instead, I'm posting the homily of Father John Lankeit of the Ss. Simon and Jude Cathedral in Phoenix, Arizona, a homily I tripped over yesterday on Facebook.

He too has a prophetic word for us from last week I thought worthy of sharing. Set aside 20 minutes today and listen, really listen, to it:

I thank God for the Fr. Mikes and the Fr. Johns that are out there and hope that in fact there are many more. We need many more.

You may hate me and hate my Christian values; you may despise the Church and all Her teachings; you may be certain that if only the old-fashioned notions of marriage and sex could be jettisoned, and if God could be adapted to your enlightened, modern sensibilities, then “equality” would win the day and everyone would be free and happy.

But I know you are wrong. I know it because nothing good can possibly come from eviscerating marriage of its meaning, or of distorting and twisting human sexuality into a pretzel of fabricated varieties and initials, or of wrenching innocence and modesty from our children in the name of sexual freedom and autonomy. Nothing good will ever, ever come of the brutality of abortion.

Love will never be found in the sexless manufacture of children, or the selfish denial of their right to their mother and father.

Love is “willing the good of the other, as other” the great saint Thomas Aquinas said. If I love you, I will want and do only what is for your good, even if it costs me. If you love me, you will do the same.

The signs all along the road our culture is currently speeding down do not point to love at all. They point to hedonism, nihilism, and despair. When sacrificial love is no longer the guiding principle, we are hopelessly lost.

The plans and vision you wish to bring about in our country are loveless, empty, and hopeless. You may very well be gaining ground, and you may win a few battles, thanks to decades of a lackluster witness and worse, friendly cooperation from Christians who should have known better, and should have done better.

Even so, the Church will survive you. She has watched as every major world empire has ended up on the ash heap of history. She will survive you. But not arrogantly, and not due to any cleverness or merit of Her own, but only because Jesus Christ has promised that the gates of Hell shall not prevail.

Thursday, May 07, 2015

Some are saying I provoked this attack. But to kowtow to violent intimidation will only encourage more of it.

Sunday in Garland, Texas, a police officer was wounded in a battle that is part of a longstanding war: the war against the freedom of speech. Some people are blaming me for the Garland shooting — so I want to address that here.

The shooting happened at my American Freedom Defense Initiative Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest, when two Islamic jihadists armed with rifles and explosives drove up to the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland and attempted to gain entry to our event, which was just ending. We were aware of the risk and spent thousands of dollars on security — and it paid off. The jihadis at our free speech event were not able to achieve their objective of replicating the massacre at the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine last January — and to go it one better in carnage. They were not able to kill anyone. We provided enormous security, in concert with the superb Garland police department. The men who took the aspiring killers down may have saved hundreds of lives.

And make no mistake: If it weren’t for the free-speech conference, these jihadis would have struck somewhere else — a place where there was less security, like the Lindt cafe in Australia or the Hyper Cacher Kosher supermarket in Paris.

So, why are some people blaming me? They’re saying: “Well, she provoked them! She got what she deserved!” They don’t remember, or care to remember, that as the jihadis were killing the Muhammad cartoonists in Paris, their friend and accomplice was murdering Jews in a nearby kosher supermarket. Were the Jews asking for it? Did they “bait” the jihadis? Were they “provoking” them?

Are the Jews responsible for the Nazis? Are the Christians in the Middle East responsible for being persecuted by Muslims?

Drawing Muhammad offends Islamic jihadists? So does being Jewish. How much accommodation of any kind should we give to murderous savagery? To kowtow to violent intimidation will only encourage more of it.

Not long ago, I received a phone call from my financial advisor. He calls regularly to check in and go over any changes to my portfolio and so I didn’t think too much of it when I first took the call but that changed moments into the conversation.

He said something about having some news to share with me and I knew right away that he was moving on to bigger and better things and my investments would be turned over to someone else in the firm. Immediately I began to think selfishly about who the new person might be, would they be as competent as Alex had been, would we hit it off as well with him or her, would we be as impressed and as confident with his replacement.

But all that changed when Alex answered my question as to what he was going to do next.

“I’m going to join the Seals,” he said.

“The Navy Seals?!” I asked somewhat incredulously.

“Yes, the Navy Seals,” he responded with a grin I could hear over the phone. “It’s something I've thought about doing for some time, something I feel called to do.”

“Whoa dude!” was all I could react with initially but I recovered enough to engage him about his move, talked about staying in touch and I let him know that I was inspired by his decision. I also told him that I’d be praying for him regularly, something I've done daily since.

It was a couple of days later, while praying a Rosary no less that I thought about Alex again. I thought about him and all young men who choose to potentially sacrifice their lives for the sake of others. Men willing to engage an enemy for selfless reasons. Men driven by an internal force purposed in principled good. Men who seek justice at all costs. Men who quietly do what most won’t. Men for whom thinking people are grateful. Men unthinking people too often despise.

I then had an unusual follow-on thought.

My respect and admiration for Alex was high before I took his call and even higher after taking it but the thought that cropped up, seemingly out of nowhere, was how much more respect and admiration I’d have for him if he’d said, “Hey Rick, I’m no longer going to do what I've been doing because… I've decided to join the priesthood”.

Yea… that’s pretty wild I know, particularly when Alex and I had only had surface level discussions about the divine and he had not in any way suggested to me that priesthood was even a possibility but… think on it.

Priests sacrifice their way of life for others. Priests engage the enemy of all enemies for selfless reasons. Priests are driven by the Holy Spirit to bring about principled good. Priests seek justice no matter the cost. Priests quietly do what most men do not. Many of us are most grateful for our priests and yet, many despise them.

I've come to believe firmly that we are all called by God to fulfill His purposes and I believe as firmly that this call can too often and too easily be drowned out by the noise and distractions of the world. I of course can’t say with any certainty that Alex is called to the priesthood nor can I deny that becoming a Navy Seal might be exactly what God desires Alex to do but I am struck by the similarities.

In this life, circumstances are such that Navy Seals are necessary yet we’d be foolish to not recognize the necessity of priests and the battles they fight for us.